1892 Holdings Could Complete Full Liverpool Takeover Within A Year! | Redmen Bitesize

Steve Haw (0:00)

Before we get into the podcast, I want to let you know that you can get even more from The Redmen TV with a subscription to Redmen Plus. You can get loads of extra content plus all of our usual free content, completely ad free, both in video and podcast form. Right now, you can get your first month of a monthly captain subscription for just one pound, or if you want to join us for the year, you can get a yearly captain subscription for half price. Simply download the Redmen Plus app and subscribe today. Right, I hope you enjoy this show. Hello everyone and welcome to Redmen TV. This is the Redmen Bitesize podcast. I'm Steve Haw. It is Friday the 6th of November. Hope you're doing well. I hope you're all looking forward to a fantastic weekend. Hopefully Liverpool get back to winning waves when they go to Crystal Palace at the weekend. We'll have a little bit of an update in terms of Crystal Palace on that in a moment. But first, we'll focus on Liverpool and a story from the Athletic, Simon Hughes, friend of the show, reporting about 1892 holdings and the report of two options that they have that could see them increase their stake in Liverpool as soon as they've been ratified as part owners by the independent football regulator. So obviously the deals are being done, etc, etc, etc. They're still waiting for the IFR approval, the football regulator's approval before it can be rubber stamped official, etc, etc. It's meant to be worth around £2 billion that they paid for the 38% stake in Liverpool. Well, according to Simon's reporting, within the next 12 months, they could increase that ownership even further with the option of 100% ownership on the table as well. So yeah, obviously when they first invest in the club, it was reported, there's triggers in the contract or whatever that allow them to increase it in due course. Well, according to the Athletic and Simon's report in particular, the agreement that was made back when the original investment took place says, that 1892 Holdings could end up taking control of Liverpool by increasing their claim to around 69% or potentially even complete a 100% buyout within the next 12 months. So obviously, Amit Bhatia is the leader of that consortium. He might eventually end up becoming a Liverpool chairman. He's currently a vice chairman. Obviously, we know about the Jeff Bezos investment and other wealthy people who have invested in that consortium, which ultimately will end up, it looks like a majority shareholder at Liverpool. Eduardo Saverin, of course, former Facebook co-founder, he's involved as well. So, yeah, the main crux of this story is that we now know that what the deal is in terms of what the extension options are for these guys investing more and becoming more prevalent in the Liverpool boardroom. But eventually, like I say, becoming the majority shareholders, they have options in place that could see them get as high as 100% ownership of Liverpool. Obviously, we will see what they decide to do. They can get to 69% since they'll have other minority owners. FSG might still be a part of that, for example, or they could even complete a 100% buyout.

For what it's worth, FSG have been looking at investing in Formula One with the Cadillac F1 team. Look at the purchase of the stake in them. They're valued at around $3 billion, US dollars.

So maybe there's a case where they sell more of Liverpool and start investing elsewhere. Obviously, they also have stakes in, we know the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Red Sox, RFK Racing. So their portfolio of sporting teams is very high. But if they do want to exit out of Liverpool completely, it looks like now that option is on the table. And it looks like it's actually on the table more from 1892 Holdings' point of view. So they might be able to trigger their options.

According to Simon's report, the arrangement that is in place with FSG might point towards a takeover in stages, allowing batty's groups to familiarise themselves with the challenges of running one of England's English football's most famous clubs before then taking on more responsibility incrementally. So yet it appears it might be one of those cases where they invest a bit more and take more ownership, a bit more and more and more and eventually get to that 100% ownership of the football club. So good reporting from Simon, getting the scoop there on exactly what was in that deal. And yet in testing that, yeah, we could be heading towards a world where FSG exit Liverpool completely, maybe within the next year or so. We'll have to see how that all pans out in due course. But in testing the report and there, we now know the details. It looks like an exit and a change of majority and then eventually full ownership of Liverpool isn't too far away.